| Archives of Nolan's Pop Culture Review | ||
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 LA FLORIDIANA "I Married The Dead!" A True Florida Horror Story....A Visit With A Comic Book Hero by William Moriaty | ||
THIS WEEK'S MOVIE REVIEW "Ray" by Mike Smith | ||
THE ENLIGHTENMENT Recommended Viewing For Halloween by Terence Nuzum | ||
ODDSERVATIONS The Halloween Horror Picture Show 2004...."Filthy" plays "Flicks on Fairbanks", Orlando...."Do They Know It's Christmas?" '04, Oddservations Calendar....and HAPPY HALLOWEEN! by Andy Lalino | ||
SPLASH PAGE Rakuween Turns 5!!! by Brandon Jones | ||
MIKE'S RANT Happy Birthday....Babe Who?....Shaking With Antici -- pation....Aaargh!....Love Those Brits....Vote!....Meet The Beatles, Part 40 by Mike Smith | ||
LETTERS | ||
Established A.D. 2000, March 19. Now in our fifth calendar year!
Number 240 (Vol. 5, No. 44). This edition is for the week of October 25--31, 2004.
Forgive this very sparse headline section, everything's running way behind this week. Halloween you know, hundreds of things going on.
Secondly, because the website was down (well, locked-up) for nearly a week due to a spamming problem, I was unable to get a head start on what is usually a two-week edition of the Halloween PCR issue. After discussing it with my compadres, it was decided it was simply getting too late to start a new "Top 10 Best Horror Movies of All Time" challenge this close to Halloween; we did it two years in a row a few years ago and our lists haven't changed all that much---but of course, we've added some new writers onto the staff since then and I'd like to've added their lists to ours. I apologize for any disappointments this may have caused, but it really couldn't be helped. Hopefully, with no more major catastrophes, we can do it up even better next year.
THE HALLOWEEN HORROR PICTURE SHOW. As mentioned previously in PCR #237, written up on the Message Board currently, and further discussed in this issue's Oddservations, Andy Lalino and Rick Danford have teamed up to produce this convention/film festival happening at USF this Saturday, October 30th. Features the Tampa Bay area's best and brightest horror filmmakers and many special guests (including an appearance by Dr. Paul Bearer's nephew Professor Paul Bearer II!). Yours truly is expected to show his geeky mug if I can find a ride in time. For more information, see PCR #237, or better yet, visit the Halloween Horror Picture Show website.
RAKUWEEN. As many of you may have noticed at page top, I'm re-running a very popular video from last year, namely The World of Nolan, episode two, where I spotlighted "Rakuween", the event staged by Bill Turner and Brandon Jones in Dover, Florida, for the last five years. A privately held, hand-crafted event that has enjoyed enormous growth, that's also happening this weekend and is a highly recommended escape. For more details, please visit the Rakuween website.
GUAVAWEEN. Tampa's premiere Mardi-Gras-like celebration (well, besides Gasparilla) happens in Ybor this Saturday, October 30th. Always a blast with live bands, costume contests, and uncontrolled throngs of costumed creeps. Visit the official Guavaween Website for more information on events and advanced ticket sales.
Congratulations to FLASH FANTASTIC On Your First Anniversary I volunteered to do the monthly "covers" myself as a way to enhance the book-ish feel and to (hopefully) help stimulate imaginations in addition to the great work the writers were doing in that regard. It's been a challenging and rewarding experience, and until recently, every issue came out in a timely fashion.
During the last two months, hurricanes and radical schedule changes have made it very difficult for Patty and me to keep the issues coming out on time. September's issue was late due to the storms. The October issue just came out the 29th of...October. I take responsibility for that one (the covers are a labor of love but are very time-consuming). Patty just wrote to me and said her writing schedule (she's writing several new books) may not permit her to stay on as editor of the 'zine past the end of this year. I replied that with the increasing management demands of Crazed Fanboy, that unfortunately, I can no longer guarantee my availability to personally do the Flash Fantastic "covers" on a regular basis. What to do, what to do? I certainly did NOT want to drop the section entirely as I have become quite enamored of the format.
We scouted for a new managing editor-in-chief and have narrowed it down to a very short list. Plus, starting with the January 2005 issue, instead of new covers every month, I will install an attractive, atmospheric permanent frameset that will contain all the stories as they are updated. The new editor will have carte-blanche access to the Crazed Fanboy webspace and will be free to update FF as his/her discretion. So it may come out once a month, or even more frequently than that depending on what the supply/demand situation looks like.
Happy Halloween!
• Halloween Events
• Flash Fantastic's One Year Anniversary
It's that wonderful time of year that every giddy fanboy likes; a time when our very geekiness is actually turned to our advantage! We walk the streets with the normals, and blend in because, hey, at Halloween that what freaks and geeks do!
Wednesday, the day PCR usually goes up, I joined a very special friend for his birthday and some moving chores. Corey Castellano, movie special effects make-up maestro turned 41 and was in town for a rare visit; I wanted to make the most of it and help him move into his new house. Of course, it cost me a day's production, and then on virtually no sleep go work at the hellpit of despair overnight to, you know, make money to pay bills and stuff. But those are the sacrifices I occasionally make if I'm ever going to see family and friends. (The key to my computer shackles almost didn't turn the lock, it was so rusty!)
I would be remiss if I didn't mention three super-humongous events happening in and around the Tampa Bay area this weekend:
When Patty G. Henderson first proposed the idea of a flash fiction site, I confess I didn't even know what flash fiction was. She explained they were short short stories, usually no more than 1000 words long (others differ on this, personal preference comes into play), that is best read when there's not much time to read. Short shockers are very popular, and is what Patty insisted our flash site be: genre-oriented, geared toward fans of horror, science-fiction, and fantasy, hence the name "Flash Fantastic". Hey, what's not to like about that?
Birthday wishes go out to (as mentioned above) Corey Castellano, who turned 41 October 27, and very belated (sorry) birthday greetings go out to Hugo Morley who turned 37 on October 2nd, and Joshua Montgomery who turned 21 on October 4th!
Once again: Happy Halloween! And please don't forget to ROCK THE VOTE by attending the polls next Tuesday, November 2nd! Our future depends on this election. --Nolan
